Fortnite developers work 70-hours a week at Epic Games: Report

A report claims that Fortnite employees are working 70 hours a week, resulting in a toxic, stressful environment at the company.

Fortnite developers are reportedly working in a state of constant crunch to a bid to secure the popular game’s “success” and “profitability.” A report claims that Fortnite employees are working 70 hours a week, resulting in a toxic, stressful environment at the company. Additionally, Polygon conducted a bunch of interviews, which revealed that a few employees work 100 hours a week.

“I work an average 70 hours a week,” one source revealed. “There’s probably at least 50 or even 100 other people at Epic Games working those hours. I know people who pull 100-hour weeks. The company gives us unlimited time off, but it’s almost impossible to take time. If I take time off, the workload falls on other people, and no one wants to be that guy,” the cited source reported.

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Besides, according to a survey conducted by the International Game Developers Association in the year 2014, around 81 percent of developers experienced crunch. Coming back to the Fortnite, an employee asserted that “the biggest problem is that we’re patching all the time.” In order to keep the Fortnite Battle Royale game popular with gamers, they need to offer new things, which will also bar players from drifting to rivals.

“Everything has to be done immediately. We’re not allowed to spend time on anything. If something breaks — a weapon, say — then we can’t just turn it off and fix it with the next patch. It has to be fixed immediately, and all the while, we’re still working on next week’s patch. It’s brutal.”

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“I hardly sleep. I’m grumpy at home. I have no energy to go out. Getting a weekend away from work is a major achievement. If I take a Saturday off, I feel guilty. I’m not being forced to work this way, but if I don’t, then the job won’t get done,” a source said. Furthermore, the mentioned report also revealed that the success of the popular game had created a lot of difficulties.

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“Fortnite achieved a far higher level of success than we had ever anticipated,” said a spokesperson. “Everybody throughout Epic responded to the success with incredible vigor and commitment. The Fortnite team rapidly expanded the game to grow the audience; the Unreal Engine team began a broad effort to optimize for 60fps and support seven platforms; others throughout the company moved to Fortnite to maintain momentum.”